


She Made The World Stand Still

by orphan_account



Series: Will It Be Enough? [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: But An Awesome One, Deaf Character, Frances Is An Irresponsible Babysitter, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Misgendering, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Probably Wrong Doctors' Office Description
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 15:48:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7274176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Laurens-Hamiltons find out their daughter is deaf.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Made The World Stand Still

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how doctors offices work. Oops...?
> 
> tw for misgendering (immediately corrected)
> 
> Title is from: The Deaf Girl's Song - Cloud Cult

John put Ellie down to sleep an hour ago—he swore he did. But Ellie was awake and loudly crying.

John groaned and said, “I'll get her.” He got up from the dining table and went into Ellie's room.

He walked to Ellie's toddler bed. She looked pale. Very pale. He tried picking her up and she cried louder. Huh. That was weird. She normally liked being held. He checked her temperature and his eyes widened. Ellie had a fever.

John picked her up and put her in a stroller. He rolled her out to the dining room. “Alexander. Eliza. Ellie's sick. I'm taking her to the doctor.” Alexander and Eliza's eyes widened and they stood up right away.

“Oh my God. Is she okay? Is she gonna live?” Alexander asked. He pulled out his phone and searched the most common illnesses in infants. “Is it fatal? Is she gonna live?”

“I don't know. But I hope she's gonna be okay,” John said. “Frances, you're in charge. Make sure everyone above the age of ten is in bed by eleven. Everyone else, in bed by nine.”

Frances nodded. “What's wrong with Ellie?”

John ruffled Frances’ hair. “We don't know. But she's sick.”

The car ride to the doctor's office was silent. John was gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles were white.

The group rolled Ellie into the doctor's office, worried. Alexander walked up, legs shaking, and signed them in.

Fifteen minutes later, a nurse called them in. They got up and followed the nurse. The walls of the office, Eliza noticed, were a pale yellow. It was a complete contrast to the fear that they were feeling.

The nurse did a preliminary check on Ellie and said, “The doctor will be in shortly.” She smiled sympathetically.

“Oh my God. What if this is a serious thing that could kill her?” Eliza asked. “I can't lose Ellie!”

The doctor came in as Eliza was saying that. He said, “I don’t think that your daughter’s deathly ill. What's been bothering her?”

“I don't know, but she's pale, averse to being touched, and feverish. What's wrong with Ellie and how do we fix it?” John asked worriedly.

“The symptoms you listed sound like meningitis. One effect of not treating this in time is deafness. Let me try something. If it doesn't work, she's deaf.” The doctor put something in Ellie's ear and it beeped three times. Ellie didn't react any of the three times, she just continued crying. “Your daughter is deaf. I'm sorry. I would get her an ASL coach and start her learning soon. I can put her on medication, but it won't save her hearing.”

Eliza looked at the doctor in shock. She nodded. “Please. I don't want this to affect her any more than it has.”

The doctor wrote a prescription and the family left. “Ellie… I can't believe she's deaf,” Eliza said.

“It's my fault. If I had just stopped T as soon as I had the suspicion I was pregnant, this probably wouldn't've happened,” John said.

“John, it wasn't anyone's fault that Ellie got meningitis. It's just something that happens. People get sick. It's not anyone's fault,” Alexander said, hugging John.

“It's my fault. I had a sneaking suspicion something was wrong with Ellie, but I didn't say anything because I thought it was nothing,” Eliza said. “Because I didn't say anything, our daughter is deaf. We have to teach her ASL, and she'll have to go to deaf schools, and it'll all be a mess. We have to restructure our whole lives around this.”

“Eliza, John, kindly be quiet. Being deaf isn't so bad. I know ASL. Some of my friends in the Caribbean were deaf. I'm a little bit hard of hearing and my daughter being hard of hearing isn't going to stop me from loving her just as much.”

\---

Philip ambushed them when they were coming in. “What's wrong with Ellie?”

John tightly smiled. “She has meningitis. The doctor prescribed her medication. But we didn't get there fast enough. Ellie's deaf.”

Philip shrugged. “Okay, so we’ll learn sign language. It’s not a big deal.”

“See?” Alexander said, turning to look at John and Eliza. “It’s not a big deal. Ellie’s deaf. Big deal. It’s not like deaf and hard of hearing people can’t function in society. Because we can. Look at me and Burr. Look at Thomas Edison, Helen Keller, Halle Berry, Rob Lowe, and Beethoven! They were or are all deaf or hard of hearing, and they’ve been pretty successful. I’m tired of hearing that a person’s hearing level equates to their potential success. Because it doesn’t.”

John looked down at the floor, embarrassed. “I know. I’m sorry.”

Alexander reached out and touched John’s chin and angled his face up so that he was looking Alexander in the eyes. “I know you are. Don’t be embarrassed, though. I’m sorry for blowing up at you. It’s just been a long day and I’m sorry.”

Eliza noticed that it was midnight and that Philip was still awake. “Philip, why are you still awake? It’s late. Go to bed.”

“Everyone else is awake! Frances is the best babysitter ever! She—sorry. Ze lets us stay up really late,” Angie said, joining the group in the entryway to the house.

“It’s past your bedtimes. Go to sleep. Tell the others, too,” John said. Philip and Angie walked into the living room, where the other children were. Frances tried following, but John stopped hir. “Uh-uh. You don’t get to ignore our wishes and not remind the younger children to go to bed on time. You’re sixteen years old. You should know better. You’re...I can’t do it. I tried, but I can’t. If you guys want to punish hir, go ahead. But I just...can’t.”

“What your father was trying to say is...you’re grounded for three days. With no screens,” Eliza said. “Now, get up to bed.”

Frances nodded, angry, but seeming to accept hir punishment. Ze turned hir phone over to Eliza and walked upstairs to get hir laptop, which also went to Eliza.

Soon enough, Eliza, Alex, and John heard the sounds of tired children walking up the stairs. Eliza smiled. “Alex, do you want to take a shift at tucking the kids in?”

Alexander shook his head. “I have work to do. So much work to do.”

“Take a break,” Eliza wrapped her arms around Alexander’s neck.

“I can’t.” Alexander sighed.

“Why not?” John asked. He was tired of being the children’s only dad.

“I have to get this budget plan to Washington by noon today,” Alexander replied. He had recently been appointed as the Secretary of the Treasury. John sighed. It seemed like Alexander was always busy with one thing or another.

“Alex, you’ve been working so hard for the past few weeks. You deserve a break,” Eliza said.

Alexander sighed. “Alright,” he relented. “The plan is nearly done, anyway.”

“Good.” Eliza smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> If there are any pronoun mishaps, please let me know. Thank you.


End file.
